Alexis is one of the most positive and helpful people in the startup community I know. He drew the original logo for Justin.tv, helped us on numerous occasions, and has even tried to launch my voice acting career (a long time dream of mine). Why is he so helpful? Because at heart, Alexis is a great guy who is genuinely interested in helping others.

This is a huge win for YC!

Thanks, Jkan. I've always felt your open-source reddit announcement is one day going to launch that voiceacting career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo4O4T-7BiE

"Anyone on the East Coast thinking of applying to YC should feel free to ask him any questions they have about YC or the application process."

How? Is there an email address?

Hopefully the answer isn't obvious and I've missed it.

Oops, yes, just added that to the post.

[email protected]

Sweet, thanks.

Is YC planning on hiring similar "evangelists" for other places in the world? I'm wondering about Israel, specifically.

I hadn't thought about it. The main reason we did this now was that we wanted to hire Alexis, and he wanted to live in NYC.

When you want an Ambassador to London you know where I am :-)

Having Alexis on board is great. He was great when the whole Digg/Reddit recursion thing went crazy that day. I still have the Reddit sticker on my suitcase that he sent out.

Yes indeedy, how about the other side of the pond, hmm? :)

I think this is a major opportunity for YCombinator.

I know there's several of us here in Boston that are excited about this!

Agreed. Alexis should come speak at Hackers and Founders Boston in October re: applying to YC :).

Yes! Maybe the startup bootcamp organizers can snatch him as a speaker as well, or at least at the H&F meetup that evening. I'm officially offering a ride in exchange for some roadtrip company/advice giving

He actually spoke there last year, you can watch it online here: http://alexisohanian.com/my-recent-talk-mit-startup-bootcamp

How can I say no to this? I'm getting in touch with the organizers for this year's Startup Bootcamp. I'll have to fly back that night, though, but it can work...

Alexis as our Ambassador to the East and Steve (with Hipmunk) in the summer batch-- needless to say I am bursting with joy.

More discussion on the other thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1653134

"Ambassador to the East" sounded a little like East as in Beijing :: at first, and perhaps only to English ears.

It is deliberately medievally grandiose. It goes with his name.

Though, I do love travelling...

Will Alexis' ambassadorship include Canadian hubs like Toronto, Montreal, Waterloo, etc at some point?

Come to think of it, that would be a good idea. So probably yes.

That is excellent to hear. Startup culture is flourishing here and hopefully holds a lot of promise.

Steve & I are still recovering from the Toronto reddit meetup (drankkit). Those Waterloo students... wow...

Ah, so HN is becoming like Reddit after all. ;-)

Welcome! You will make this place better.

Thanks! I'm aiming to just make it suck a little less ;)

Aiming for better would be better ;)

Lots of good news for us NY folks today.

Congrats kn0thing!

Yay!

Welcome.